Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach Craig Dickenson expects the Edmonton Elks to be highly motivated on Thursday as the team looks to secure its first win of the season.
“I think they’ll be very desperate. I don’t want to say it’s a must-win because it’s still early but they need to play better, we know that,” he told the media in Regina.
“They’ve always played us well, we talked about that this morning. The last six games, the average margin was five points and we’ve had to win a couple of those on a last-second field or a last-second drive. We know Edmonton’s going to come in here guns blazing. They beat us at home last year to really close us out and we feel like we want to play better and put a better showing on this year.”
Saskatchewan and Edmonton met in Week 1 at Commonwealth Stadium where the Riders earned a 17-13 win on the strength of a late-game goal-line stand. The Elks have lost three games since by a margin of 12 or more points, including a 26-7 loss to the previously winless Ottawa Redblacks this past week.
Riders’ franchise quarterback Trevor Harris agreed with his head coach’s assessment, though he’s pleased his team will have their hometown crowd behind them when they take on the Elks this time around.
“I expect them to be a Chris Jones-led football team. They’re going to come out and play hard, they’re gonna always be long, athletic, strong and they’re going to play hard,” said Harris. “We’re excited to go tee it up. They’ve gotta come here and deal with our crowd and we get to go and put on a show for our crowd.”
Harris struggled against Edmonton back in Week 1 as he completed 20-of-33 pass attempts for 179 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. He was complimentary of Edmonton’s defensive performance in that game and indicated that he has since grown more familiar with his team’s new offensive system.
“It’s more or less just about being comfortable. I didn’t quite know what I was doing quite yet,” said Harris. “This game is just more about being able to go in there, stand in there no matter what happens and be able to deliver the passes, hand the ball off, take what the defence gives us, move the chains one play at a time.”
The Elks made a change at quarterback this past week as veteran passer Taylor Cornelius was benched in favour of rookie Jarret Doege. It appears as though Edmonton will reverse course again this week as Cornelius took first-team reps in practice on Monday.
The Riders (2-1) are scheduled to host the Elks (0-4) on Thursday, July 6 with kickoff slated for 9:00 p.m. EDT.
